Search crews on military and civilian vessels continued efforts to recover bodies, the flight data recorder, and the fuselage.
The extreme depth of the wreckage, believed to be resting in 2,600 feet of water, has hampered recovery, and only small pieces of the plane and body parts from the shark-filled waters near the resort had been found.
France dispatched three aircraft with 50 specialists, a military surveillance plane, a naval frigate, 16 scuba divers, and a robot submarine to help. Of the 148 passengers who died, there were 133 French tourists, a Japanese, a Moroccan, and 13 Egyptian crew members.
Deputy Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier of France told reporters there was nothing to suggest that terrorism was involved in Saturday's crash of Flash Airlines Flight FSH604, which had just left Sharm el-Sheik on its way to Paris when it crashed. Transport Minister Gilles de Robien said indications suggest the plane suffered "simply a loss of power."
Egyptian officials have said preliminary information indicates the crash was caused by a mechanical problem. Radar images showed that the plane turned left as normal after takeoff, straightened out, then turned right before plunging into the sea.
Several tourists and witnesses said they did not hear any explosions before the crash.
Egypt has said the Flash Airlines jet, an 11-year-old Boeing 737, had checked out fine before the flight.
Swiss officials said yesterday that technical problems had forced them to ban the Egyptian company's planes from landing in Switzerland.
"A series of safety shortcomings showed up in a plane of Flash Airlines during a routine security check at Zurich Airport in October 2002," said Celestine Perissinotto, a spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation.
Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafeeq of Egypt called the Swiss charge "baseless." Transport Minister Gilles de Robien of France also cast doubt on the charge, saying he understood "it was more for economic reasons that this company did not fly over Switzerland."
